Katie Pruitt grew up in an Atlanta suburb. Her parents worked doing white collar jobs in sales and engineering. Her family was deeply religious and she attended Catholic school and went to weekly mass.
She says growing up in a conventional life made her feel confined to live a life she was "supposed" to live. Like many other artists, she wrote music to express herself. "I definitely remember having crushes on girls in high school and writing the song to a girl, or about a girl," she begins. "But then when I played it for people, I obviously wasn't out, so I would just change the pronoun and kind of hide behind that."
The debut album from Katie Pruitt, Expectations is a glowingly detailed collection of real-life stories, a courageous document of coming of age in a sometimes-unwelcoming world. With a narrative voice, at turns poetic and unaffected, the Georgia-bred singer/songwriter/guitarist treads endlessly complex emotional ground: mental illness, toxic relationships, the frustration and shame of growing up gay in the Christian South. But by speaking her truth with sensitivity and grit, Katie ultimately arrives at a self-acceptance that’s both hard-won and happily defiant.
Throughout Expectations, Katie imbues her lyrics with a spellbinding specificity that comes from years of dedication to her craft.
As a kid she learned to play guitar from her mother, then began writing her own material in high school. “I sort of used writing songs as an outlet to work through what I was feeling, which is why I still do it now,” she says. “It’s always been a very cathartic thing for me.”
Although she studied music in college—first in Athens, Georgia, then at Belmont University in Nashville—Katie mostly thrived in less formal settings. “I usually skipped songwriting class to just write alone in my bedroom,” she notes.
“I called the album Expectations because I liked that it was ironic,” says the 25-year-old artist, now based in Nashville. “This record’s really about letting go of what other people expect from you, and being free to be to just finally be yourself.”
Expectations Tour 2020 April 4.1.20 Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern 4.3.20 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court 4.5.20 Denver, CO - Globe Hall 4.7.20 St. Paul, MN - Turf Club 4.8.20 Kansas City, MO - Riot Room 4.9.20 St. Louis, MO - Blueberry Hill 4.10.20 Evanston, IL - Space 4.11.20 Indianapolis, IN - HIFI 4.13.20 Toronto, ON - Drake Hotel 4.15.20 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge 4.17.20 - Boston, MA - Cafe 939 4.20.20 Washington, DC - DC9 4.22.20 Atlanta, GA - Eddie's Attic 4.24.20 Louisville, KY - Zanzabar 4.25.20 Nashville, TN - The Basement East
